The Cyber Initiative
The Cyber Initiative is a collective of ponies who have switched their biological bodies for robotic ones. They propose a future in which cybernetics will extend the lives of all ponies as well as increase their productivity and efficiency. They have gained a reputation of altruism and benevolence by offering their life-saving technology to ailing ponies with crippling disabilities and terminal illnesses. While those who join the Cyber Initiative gain robotic bodies, the advanced technology would not be able to function without a sufficiently evolved neural network; a pony brain. The cyberization process removes the subject's brain and encases it inside the head of the new robot body, giving it a body with far greater potential than a flesh and blood one, whilst being immune to disease and highly resistant to damage. Many have joined the Cyber Initiative willingly for these new robotic bodies.
But the availability of cybernetics on the open market, and potential for abuses has led the Cyber Initiative to implement restrictions on their technology, such as tracking devices and remote shutdown overrides. Some of their critics allege this gives them unprecedented control and potential for extortion over those who agree to becoming cyberponies, and that misuse of technology is the price that should be paid for freedom. The company in response has turned over most important decisions towards its supercomputer, Central Consciousness. This has not alleviated criticisms, as was hoped by the creators of the Cyber Initiative, who have themselves undergone cyberization, thus placing themselves under the oversight of their creation.
Despite this, the Cyber Initiative remains a powerful megacorporation and the primary developer of robotics, cybernetics and bionics in Ponecia. Being comprised almost entirely of cyberponies, it is a unique faction with untested limits of potential for growth and advancing the equine races of the nation into a future full of cyber technology.